Spirits and Starsigns
by IronChainDragon
Summary: They're capable mages. They can do great things. But they're still just kids. The older generation can't help but commiserate.


Daichi: Something I just thought up at random that I figured was good enough to publish.

Verity: We don't own Magical Vacation/Starsign. Otherwise, the one with more element choices would likely be the one with multiple saves.

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It wasn't that Cheese didn't like Pistachio. Honestly, the two had been best friends for centuries for a reason, even if a lot of their other friends had dropped off the radar, with Ganache being the most recent, and the most worrying. In fact, after that fateful summer camp, she'd say she could trust the man with her life.

That fact did not necessarily make him the best teacher. Sometimes he forgot that not everyone had the same experiences they did, or even the same innate talent. Sometimes, she had to remind him to relax a little, and to let the students do so, as well. Which was why, on days she had off but he didn't, she made excuses to hang around Miss Madeleine's- she'd never call it his, just no- classroom, just in case such a thing became necessary. The students loved her for this, because those were the days they were most likely to get homework within the realm of possibility.

"Honestly, this is the entire reason you're just a substitute teacher," She sighed one day, grading homework with one hand and playing with lightning with the other. "Do I really need to remind you that these are just kids?"

"So were we."

"They're not going to be fighting Enigmas, Pistachio," She pointed out. "At least, I hope not. You never know, but we haven't seen them around Kovomaka since then. I think it's safe."

"I know. It's just... our old classmates have gone missing, with the exception of Mokka, who doesn't count since-" Pistachio broke off, before turning back to his own work. Neither of them liked thinking of the day that their old friend's memory banks had been wiped for good, which had been what made them stop being an adventuring party. Had the incident never taken place, Cheese could see herself continuing to lead them for many more decades.

Even harder for Pistachio, since he was teaching the robot. Cheese didn't envy him, not in the slightest.

"And if you add that to Miss Madeleine, it's far too familiar," She finished. "Trust me, if this were a hundred years ago, I'd go look myself. But I have responsibilities right now. I can't just run off without any backup. That's probably why she went missing, anyway."

Were it any of the others, they would likely have suggested being Cheese's backup. But Pistachio understood just as much as she did, that they couldn't afford to leave like that. The two of them and Miss Madeleine were Will-o-Wisp's best combat mages. They'd programmed the dolls she'd picked up over their travels to act as a sort of security team, but if anyone decided, for whatever suicidal reason, to attack the school, Cheese and Pistachio were the last line of defense.

There was a reason why, despite Biscotti having more enemies ever since the truth of the Valencia Beach debacle came to life, nobody was stupid enough to do so. They didn't want to get crushed by a barrage of nuts or electrocuted. Even now that one of the staff most trusted to look after the children had disappeared.

"Maybe not us," Pistachio admitted. "But... well... you know the attic above the school?"

"The one that only Biscotti, us, and Miss Madeleine know about? The one with the rockets?"

"I'm worried one of the students will find it and get ideas. If they get into the rest of the solar system..." Cheese wanted to protest, say that their students couldn't possibly be that dumb, but then remembered that she had jumped into a glowing portal when she was their age.

"...They'd still have to figure out how to work it, though."

"With Mokka at the school? Trust me, they'd find a way." And that, she found, was something she really couldn't argue with.

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Cheese had no clue what self-respecting Dark Magic family would name their daughter Sundae, but she supposed it wasn't that bad, given the existence of one Vanilla Nighthawk. Sundae was a good student, who was also capable of making and keeping friends with a proficiency not seen since Cheese herself had been a student.

So to see her running through the hallway, in the direction of the attic, was rather alarming. The robot following at her heels reminded the teacher of her own school days, and that was a scary thought. "Mokka!" She called, and her one-time friend turned to her.

"What is it, Miss Cheese?" He asked. It always hurt, to hear his voice with no hint of recognition, but sometimes she thought it was better this way. That he wasn't weighed down the way the others were, with blood on their hands and memories of vicious monsters that wished to steal their bodies, or otherwise kill them. Chocolat was the only one of them who showed no signs of PTSD, and he was... well... Chocolat. There was little good about being a child soldier.

"Where is Sundae going?" She asked, hoping that the underlying fear in her voice wasn't too obvious.

"Our classmate, Lassi, disappeared while babbling about a rocket. We want to find her before she does something stupid." And with that, her faint hope vanished. Because Lassi was well known by the staff for being curious and getting into things she shouldn't have. If she found the rockets... And, worse, the word 'we'. Anyone who paid attention to Mokka and Sundae knew that the two were never without Pico and Sorbet, and Lassi was rarely seen away from Chai. Six kids. Six rockets. And it was probably too late to stop them.

"...I see. You'd best get going, then," She said. And, more quietly, as he left, "Take care of them, would you?" His magic might have been severely weakened, but he was still capable. He'd be fine.

He had to be.

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In hindsight, Ganache mused, Carbon wasn't a very good cover name. Not when it had been a nickname he used back when he and Cheese were co-leaders of a highly successful adventuring party on Kovomaka, but he was feeling sentimental that day. His therapist would be proud, he was sure, to see him looking back on his childhood with something resembling fondness, disastrous summer camp and issues with his sister aside.

Not that he wanted to look back on his childhood at the moment, even with how bad things were in the present. Especially given how bad things were in the present. He couldn't afford distractions.

It was easy to get lost in those memories, though, when events just like it were playing out before his eyes. Miss Madeleine captured by some powerful force, this time a user of Light Magic, and her students forming an adventuring party to save her, led by a user of Dark Magic. In a sense, Sundae was a combination of himself and Cheese- she used his element, but had her sense of style. Only time would tell who her leadership abilities favored.

Seeing Mokka amongst the group gave him some idea as to how they'd survived thus far, if he was using his powers to protect them. Though this did explain why his other former classmates were avoiding the six kids. None of them had taken the incident well. That was the problem with having such a tight team- one of them got taken out of the game, and they all just fell apart. They'd stayed friends, but adventuring together had just never been in the cards since. Until now, anyway.

 _"But they need you to help them,"_ Ganache glanced at the speaker, a transparent creature on his shoulder that only he could see. The spirit was useless against Kale's Light Magic, it being the only thing that could cut through their darkness, but it was easier to feel safe, with his oldest friend by his side.

He had doubts about this- his own mental health was probably the most questionable of all of them- but he followed his spirit friend's advice, and approached the leader.

He saw the signs. The shadowed eyes, the forced smiles... this was someone who had to make tough decisions, who had been hardened by battle far too young. It was a face he saw every time he looked in the mirror. A child like that... she looked just like Cheese had, centuries ago. And that wasn't a good thing.

"Oh! Carbon, right?" She asked, quick to put on a brave face in the presence of an adult figure. Users of Dark Magic were very good liars, but they couldn't lie to each other nearly so well. Especially not those so much older than them.

"That's right. I was wondering if you needed any help." The rabbit girl cut in.

"No way! We're gonna save Miss Madeleine all on our own! For her students only!" Ganache chuckled. It had been so long since he could indulge in anything even remotely childish. By the time it was safe, they had all lost interest. Such were the perils of leading a life of adventure.

"Well, it's a good thing I qualify, then, isn't it?" They were all staring at him in open shock now.

"Really? You were taught by Miss Madeleine?" The girl that was not Sundae- Sorbet, that was her name- asked, seemingly skeptical. "Given that another former student is feeding the sun to a giant worm-"

"We can trust him," Mokka cut her off. "I am not sure why, but he registers as- as a friend." Ganache had never wondered, before, if his friend's amnesia had been as much of a burden to him as it was to them. Certainly he'd never tell the robot that he was even partially the reason the group broke apart. The Mokka he'd known would have been crushed to hear it. This one seemed no different.

"Your friend has good instincts." Their friend. Not his. Even though he'd been part of the group to finally break him out of his shell... it wasn't the same. It could never be the same. "My classmates and I once formed an adventuring party for much the same reason as you... including the Enigmas. You've had to do things to get this far you'd have never imagined, haven't you?"

"...Does it ever fade away?" The salamander asked, quietly. Ganache sighed.

"I'll tell you if it ever happens. There were a lot more of us back then, but... there was still more than enough blood to spill. I don't think any of us can think back to those days without regrets." Tiramisu had only been the start. When it came to thinking of those days, he preferred the times closer to the end, when they'd at least had each other. When Cheese had suggested making their arrangement a more permanent thing. When they'd been able to do things that, while dangerous, didn't end in lives lost and the paranoia that anyone could be an enemy.

And now even more kids were walking in their footsteps. He could only wish them luck.

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"Ganache, huh?" It had been a long time since he'd seen the other Dark Magic user, since they'd said their farewells on Shadra. He'd not stayed in one place for very long since then, trying to help the Baklava solar system recover.

"Sundae. It's been some time. Given that I haven't seen you around since that day, I assume Cheese or Pistachio told you my name?" She shrugged and sat on the rock next to him.

"Yeah, I could tell it wasn't your real name back then, and I remembered that an old class of Miss Madeleine's had been labeled the heroes of their generation, so I just asked. I'm not sure if the others know, though." Come to that, he couldn't see her classmates around anywhere.

"Where are the rest of your party? I wouldn't expect you to be here alone." Sundae sighed.

"We... well, I guess we just drifted apart. We had different ideas on what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives. And cool ruins and stuff aside, staying on Kovomaka just felt too... constricting, so I took the rocket, and here I am. Didn't your old party break up?"

"Only after Mokka... well, he's told you, right? About the memory wipe? It happened on an adventure to some of the old ruins. We ran across someone who could manipulate machines with magic... even better than him. We went in without thinking, and he paid the price for it." He shook his head. "We were a rather close-knit group, and losing one of our number... destroyed everything. After the incident with Kale, a number of us banded together again. Without Cheese or Olive, though... leading's not as easy as it used to be." And he couldn't admit this to anyone else, except maybe Olive or Cheese, but this girl who was apparently Cheese 2.0 would do.

If only his therapist hadn't been one of the first caught by the space pirates. Maybe then the fallout of this most recent disaster would be more bearable. Or not, but he could dream.

"And you can't stop, because it'd feel too much like running away otherwise," Sundae finished. "That's- that's another reason why I couldn't stay on Kovomaka. I had a hand in creating this new world, so I should have to live in it."

Ganache realized, then, that despite her looks, the girl was like him in more than just element. He'd been more distant than Cheese, as a leader, and it had taken a long time for him to agree to let her shoulder part of the burden. Sundae didn't have a co-leader. The decisions that were haunting her even now were entirely her own.

Hopefully, the next thousand years wouldn't create a third Dark Mage like them. He didn't think the world would be able to handle it if they did.

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Daichi: Because Ganache's right there, Pistachio's your substitute teacher, and these are just kids. Also, Ganache's the main reason I like the idea of the protagonist using Dark Magic. It draws interesting parallels, as he has shown himself to be capable of leadership in his own right, if lacking in social skills. And hopefully this makes the epilogue less cringeworthy.


End file.
